Monday, October 31, 2011

Choosing Happy

This week brings the one year anniversary of my move to Westminster and my cozy home here. I had moved in September to an apartment I thought would work well, but very, very soon, it all turned sour and difficult. Something told me to save all the boxes as I unpacked them. Good thing, because I moved again in less than six weeks. That experience was the final blow in a very stressful year. Quickly, I found this delightful place to live, moved and settled in.

A week later, I took a workshop on story quilts with Mary Lou Weidman and began having fun again as I designed and sewed my new shower curtain called 'Home At Last'.
Notice my creative flower garden, my hot cowgirl boots (I asked for cowgirl boots every year as a child), and my curly blond hair. It's fun to walk into the bathroom every morning and smile at the colors, patterns and my new year.

I almost did not take the workshop, thinking I should get unpacked and settled in my new home, but a little voice in me told me to go have some fun. And I did. Looking back on this past year, I can see more and more times that I chose to do what would bring me joy and laughter. I chose to be happy. It is a choice that we all have over and over. It's easy, especially in these trying times, to let the world bring us down, but we must look for the beauty, embrace the joy and live out loud in happiness. As Roger Miller said many years ago, 'you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to, just knuckle down, buckle down and do it, do it, do it.'

Where will you find happiness today?

Karen

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Family = Joy

Matthew is my oldest grandchild. He's 17, a senior in high school and a freshman in college at the same time. He's quite a guy. Last night was his homecoming game. He's played football for three years and loves it, follows the Ravens and does the fantasy football thing. At halftime, they honored the seniors and their parents, then read some notes each player had written. Our whole family was there to honor him.  He was disappointed that he could not play because his hand injury flared up. While we all would have liked to see him play (and the team win), we were there for him and all are proud of him. He's a good guy.

I cherish these family gatherings, just as I cherish each person in my family. A friend asked why I would go sit on cold metal bleachers and get precipitated upon if he wasn't playing (a mix of mist and snow flakes) - well, it's family and that's important to me. All the other grandchildren cheered the team on and cheered even louder as Matthew, oops he likes Matt, was honored. As the few snow flakes appeared, Juliana declared school might be closed on Monday and Bella, who has watched a few Christmas videos, looked up at the lights, saw some snowflakes, declared it was Christmas, and then stuck her tongue out to catch snowflakes. As we left, we all hugged and Bella wished everyone Merry Christmas. A really good night.

And to top it off nicely, the car heater worked fantastically.

How do you celebrate family? Karen

Thursday, October 27, 2011

An ADD Day

Focus was elusive today. I kept jumping from project to project and finally decided to work on another thing hanging around for months. Having a large design wall is really great but things seem to grow on it. This is a good thing really since I have to make more stuff for the show in February.

Anyway, I made some progress on a piece currently named 'blue spirits' - not because they are sad or depressed but because I printed all these spirit figures in blues. Here's the start of it ...
But I could not leave it the way it was, so I cut some figures out and moved them around til I liked what I had and decided to put it together. The hardest thing I did all day was choose a backing fabric. You would think I'd have something in this stash, but it took forever. I blame it all on having an ADD day.

Tomorrow I have to clean this place. My friend Lynn is coming from WV to teach on Saturday and is staying with me. So I must dance with the vacuum and clear away debris so we can sit and talk. I hope I can get back to the 'blues'. Then I'll go to Matthew's homecoming football game and hope it doesn't snow. He's a senior and will be honored at half time for three years of football. Let's hope they win. Here's Matthew enjoying one of his favorite activities ...

Have a great Friday. Celebrate by hugging those around you. Karen

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Back in The Studio

Back to work today and listening to the piece on the wall. Since that previous photo, I added a rising sun and stitched in 'rays'. Stepping back from it, I knew I had to do some things to give it pizzazz. First came the gold points using Shiva paintsticks. I thought I would add more gold in the next set of points using thread, but could not find the thread to match. So, I found my trusty brush and used silver fabric ink to fill in the second set of points. It's coming along. Not sure what's next. So, I'll play with another stamped fabric that's been on the design wall for a bit. Here's Sun Rise so far:

And a close-up of the top. As Bella, my three-year-old grand says, 'it's working'.
And here's Bella. She was a ballerina that day. Don't you wish you could wake up each day and decide who you might be for that day? It's too bad we can't remember what it was like to be 3.
Thanks for journeying with me. Karen

Monday, October 24, 2011

Mondays and Tuesdays are my days outside my studio, working and helping family. I try to stay present in those modes, but there is a part of me always drifting back to my studio and what I am doing next.

Over the weekend, I dyed two pieces of fabric using the ice dyeing technique. My apartment is compact and has carpeting almost everywhere. So I use the bathroom to set up the ice dyeing containers, close to the tub for dumping and rinsing. With ice dyeing, the fabric is placed on a rack in a container, covered with ice, sprinkled with a bit of dye powder and left to melt for 24 hours. As you can see here, the bathroom is pretty crowded, but the end result is worth it.

I'll take a photo of the end results later. In the meantime, I'm starting to ponder what the next step is on this piece (which has been hanging around for over a year).
But for now, I need to focus on Tuesdays with the girls. More tomorrow. Look for the sunshine. Karen

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Wild and Precious

About a year ago, I took a workshop with Jane Dunnewold on Complex Cloth. We painted, dyed, stamped, stencilled and just plain messed with fabric. One of the pieces I came home with was the start of Wild and Precious based on Mary Oliver's wonderful words "How then will you live your one wild and precious life? I began by painting the fabric with transparent paints from Pro Chem. Once dry, I used blue glue to write the words, let it dry again, then covered it with a flour paste and let that dry. After crumbling it up and breaking the flour paste surface, I painted it with black paint and let it dry.  This is what I came home with and taped to the wall.
For a long time, I touched it as I passed by and did nothing else to it. Now with the ACC show in the future, I took it down and began. The first thing was to better define the letters. I got out a favorite brush made by my friend Keith and gold fabric ink and filled in the shapes.
That sorta worked, but not enough. So, I used white opaque fabric paint and that wonderful brush again and got ...
Now I liked the words. "Imagine" had been added using a stencil with matte medium and white gold leaf. Now it was time for borders. Version one ...

Ouch, those blocks have taken over the piece. So, I ripped that off and got new borders. Fast forward to the end, I used a few different free motion designs to quilt it and VOILA, the end piece ...
And just a close-up of those important words ...

The final size is about 19" x 29". I like it. It seems to work. The best thing is that I finished it in less than a week. Working on small pieces is new for me, but I plan to do more.

Thanks for reading through this one. Enjoy the sunshine. Karen

Saturday, October 22, 2011

First blog - what a challenge!

Okay, everyone said this would be easy. Well, I guess if I follow directions, it might be. But anyway, here I go - joining the world of bloggers. One day I may get the header to look the way I want it to look, but for now, this works.

The real purpose of this blog, for now, is to follow my journey to the ACC show in February 2012. Oh, I forgot, I juried into the Baltimore ACC Show. This has been a dream for the past 19 years when I started my new life as a full-time artist. And it's happening NOW. As my daughter said, I need to get to work and make stuff. But first, I thought I would show a couple of the slides that I used to jury into the show.

This is Cactus Flowers, which was inspired by my trip to New Mexico a few years ago.


Another quilt inspired by New Mexico, Great Spirit includes some images from petroglyphs.


Back to work, more later about the piece I am working on today.